Disc projecting toy pistol



June 2, 1970 V i RKCARBONNEAU 3,515,114

DISC PROJECTING TOY PISTOL Filed Sept. 22, 1967 a 2 Sheets-Sheet 1INVENTOR RENE R. CARBONNEAU ATTORNEY J1me 1970 R. R. CARBONNEAU 3,51

DISC PROJECTING TOY PISTOL Filed Sent. 22, 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet zINVENTOR RENE R. CARBONNEAU BY M f ATTORNEY United States Patent3,515,114 DISC PROJECTING TOY PISTOL Rene R. Carbonneau, West Boylston,Mass., assignor to Ray Plastic Inc., Winchendon Springs, Mass, acorporation of Massachusetts Filed Sept. 22, 1967, Ser. No. 669,862 Int.Cl. F41b 7/08 US. Cl. 124--27 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A toypistol including a retractable trigger spring pressed to impel a plungeracting to strike and impel the top one of a stack of discs, causing thedisc to ride forwardly through a guideway, which keeps it generallyhorizontal, and out the barrel of the piston, there being a flexible pinlocated in the guideway for the disc which is impinged upon by theperiphery of the disc as it is impelled through the guideway, theflexible pin causing the disc to spin rapidly on its axis as it leavesthe barrel enhancing accuracy. The plunger includes an angled forwardextension which strikes the disk at an edge thereof remote from the edgeengaged by the pin.

This invention relates to a toy pistol of the type utilizing atrigger-retracted impelling plunger to a knock-off point Where a springurges the plunger forwardly to impinge upon a projectile, in this casethe top one of a stack in a magazine, causing the projectile to beimpelled along a short barrel and out the muzzle; in this case, theprojectile e.g. being in the form of a disc, the barrel having aguideway or firing track on the disc leading to the muzzle; in theguideway there is positioned a flexible pin impinged upon by the disc atits periphery as it is urged forwardly under the influence of theimpeller plunger so as to cause the disc to spin rapidly as it leavesthe muzzle of the toy gun maintaining a more accurate trajectory.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear hereinafter.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a view in elevation looking at the right-hand side of the toygun;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view looking in the direction of arrow 2 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a view in elevation with the right-hand part of the toy gunremoved, showing the interior construction of the left-hand part of thegun;

FIG. 4 is a view in elevation looking in the direction of arrow 4 inFIG. 1, and showing the guideway or firing track for the projectile;

FIG. 5 is a view in elevation of the inside construction of theright-hand part of the gun, the left-hand part being removed;

FIGS. 6 and 7 are diagrammatic views illustrating the action of theimpeller-plunger, and

FIG. 8 is a section on line 88 of FIG. 5, showing the action of thetrigger and its cam.

The present gun is conveniently made as for instance of plastic withsome metal parts such as the springs, etc. and comprises in general twomain parts, a left-hand part 10 in the form of a molded shell and acorresponding and cooperating right-hand part also in the for of amolded shell indicated at 12. These two shells are adapted to beconnected together in the for of a housing for all of the gun parts.Each shell part has a through trigger opening which is indicated at 16for both gun parts as together they form the finger opening for thetrigger 18.

This trigger is rectilinearly retracted by the operators 3,515,114Patented June 2, 1970 finger according to the arrows T in FIGS. 1 and 5.The trigger is not pivoted but it is loosely mounted and rectilinearlyguided in a guideway as at 20 by an integral pin 22 and it is capable ofslight lateral motion as will be made more clear hereinafter.

The trigger itself is best shown in FIG. 5 and includes a rearwardlyprojecting tapering side portion 24, see particularly FIG. 8, at the endof which there is a lateral notch 26 and a downwardly extending portion28 having a slot 30 therein for the reception of the turned-over end 32of the trigger spring 34.

In the action of the toy gun, the spring may ride to some extent in slot30. Spring 34 may be of a simple piece of resilient wire or the likehaving a coil at 36 wrapped around a post 38 with a tension end 40bearing against another post 42, so that the trigger 18 when retractedas for instance to the right in FIG. 5, will be automatically returnedby spring 34 to the normal position thereof which is shown in FIG. 5.

There is an inclined cam 44 which may be molded integrally with theleft-hand gun part 10. The position of this cam is illustrated in FIG. 5in dotted lines but of course it is not a part of gun part 12. Thefunction of this cam is illustrated in FIG. 8 wherein it will be seenthat when the trigger generally indicated at 18 is retracted until theportion at 28 strikes the inclined surface of the cam at 46, the entiretrigger will be slightly moved downwardly, see the dotted lines in FIG.8. This action is toward the right as respects the shooter who isholding the handle or grip of the gun 48; but when the trigger returnsto its normal position as above described, it is guided by the frame ofthe gun parts and is returned to its normal position which is shown insolid lines in FIG. 8.

The reason for this action resides in the provision of main spring 50which may be of a simple kind having a coil 52 on the pin 54 and havinga reaction point against another pin 56. This spring is looselyconnected with respect to an impeller plunger which is generallyindicated at 58.

This impeller plunger has a general shape which is shown in FIGS. 6 and7 and is essentially a flat plate having a forward offset nose 60, sideguide wings 62, 64 riding in guideway 66 as for instance on right gunpart in FIG. 5, and 68 on the left gun part in FIG. 3, so that it islimited to a rectilinear motion, but because the end of the spring 50extends through a hole 70 there is a relative motion allowed between thespring and the impeller plunger.

It will be noted that this impeller plunger has a forward lateralconcave surface 72 and corresponding thereto an inclined forward surface74, these surfaces being at either side of the projecting nose 60, seeFIGS. 6 and 7.

The main portion of the main spring 50 is normally located in thelateral notch 26 of trigger 18 as clearly shown in FIGS. 5 and 8 andwhen the trigger 18 is retracted as described, a shoulder at 76 whichforms a side of the recess 26 bears against the spring 50 and carries itto the rear until such time as the portion 28 of the trigger strikes theinclined surface 46 of cam 44. When this happens, the trigger is bodilymoved for instance downwardly in FIG. 8, see the dotted lines, or to theright of the shooter to release spring 50 allowing the same to movepowerfully forwardly carrying the impeller plunger 58 with it until thespring is stopped by a projection at 80 located on the main shell part12 as shown in FIG. 5. This stop limits the motion of the projectorimpeller plunger which is rigidly guided at both sides by the wings 62,64 in the guideways 66, 68.

When the trigger 18 is then released by the finger, it moves to the leftin FIG. 5 under influence of its spring 34 and as stated previously itthen moves from its depressed condition due to cam surface 46 to itsnormal position whereupon the tapered surface 24 serves to underlie themain portion of the main spring 50 causing it to ride up surface 24 andonce more snap into notch 26 over the shoulder 76.

It will therefore be seen that each time the trigger is pulled, theimpeller plunger 58 is moved to its rearwardmost position, spring 50 isreleased, the impeller plunger moves powerfully forward until stopped bystop 80 and therefore it will be seen that the toy gun is self-cockingand acts in a manner equivalent to a semi-automatic firearm.

The two main parts of the gun v and 12 have molded therein a magazinegenerally indicated at 82 and together they form a cylindrical fixedmagazine in which is a magazine spring 84 normally maintaining acartridge follower device 86 in uppermost position until depressed bythe projectiles loaded into the gun and impinging thereon. It will beseen that the gun part 12 is provided with an inlet 88 forming an entryport for the projectiles. When the impeller plunger 58 is in its normalforward position, the concave edge 72 is just barely visible in thisport, see FIG. 1. The impeller plunger 58 being held rigidly in itsplane by the guideways '66 and 68, and the cartridge follower 86 beinglocated to impinge upon the same as is perhaps best shown in FIG. 6, theprojectiles are inserted in the entry port 88 bearing down upon the edgeportion of the cartridge follower 86 that'is visible, see FIG. 2. Thecartridge follower 86 has a very definitely beveled edge, see 90 inFIGS. 2 and 5, so that it is an easy matter to take the projectiles oneby one and depress cartridge follower 86 against the action of spring 84placing the projectiles in a stack under the nose por tion 60 of theimpeller plunger 58.

The projectiles are in the form of light weight discs as for instancemade of plastic as indicated at 92 and the topmost disc in the magazineis illustrated in FIG. 1 but it is omitted from FIG. 2, FIG. 2 showingthe magazine completely empty and FIG. 1 showing the magazine filled.The discs are loaded one by one in the manner of a coin holder or thelike and are gradually received downwardly in the magazine '82.

' It will be seen that the topmost disc 92 is just under the plane ofthe impeller plunger 58, but when the latter is withdrawn, the topmostdisc 92 is moved slightly upwardly against a stop 94 forming a partialbottom for entry port 88, and when the impeller plunger moves forwardlyunder the impact of its spring 50, the disc is exactly in position to besolidly struck on its edge by the inclined forward edge 74 as isbelieved to be clearly illustrated in FIG. 7.

The barrel portion 96 of the toy gun is provided with additionalinterior opposite and corresponding guideways 98 and 100 which togetherform a firing track and guide the edges of each disc as it is projectedout of the muzzle 99 of the barrel 96 under influence of the impellerplunger. However in one of the guides as at 100 in FIG. 4 there is aflexible pin 102 mounted in fixed position in a post 104 and extendinginto the firing track 100 so that it is impinged upon by the peripheraledge of the disc as the latter passes the same in its motion out thebarrel.

4 This action clearly will cause a frictional contact with the disc andthis in turn causes a very rapid spinning action of the disc as itproceeds further through the barrel and out of the same, so that a verygreatly improved trajectory is imparted to the disc which always remainsin its plane but spins on its axis.

By repeatedly pulling the trigger, the discs are rapidly projected inthe rapid spin generally level trajectory described. When the magazineis empty, it is merely necessary to once more fill the same in themanner described above and the toy gun is once more clearly ready foroperation.

I claim:

1. A toy gun for projecting discs, said gun including a barrel, atrigger, a disc impelling plunger, a forward extension on the plunger, atrigger return spring, a main spring for operating the plunger in adirection to cause the forward extension thereof to strike a disc toimpel it out through the barrel, means in the barrel at oppoopposite theedge of the disc struck by the plunger extension, the disc thereby beingcaused to spin on its axis as it is impelled out of the barrel.

2. The toy gun of claim 1 including means in said gun providing amagazine generally in the form of a cylinder, a magazine follower, amagazine follower spring, and a loading port for loading discs so as toimpinge upon and depress said magazine follower one after the other,said magazine being located in the path of said plunger whereby theplunger engages the topmost of said discs for propelling it through thebarrel, the discs being fiat and circular and adapted to be stacked inthe cylindrical magazine.

3. The toy gun of claim 1 wherein the forward extension of the plungerincludes an inclined edge extending inwardly and rearwardly from the endof the extension, at least a portion of said inclined edge being adaptedto strike and thereby propel the disc.

References Cited UNITED STATES 'PATENTS 939,022 11/1909 Henery.1,183,133 5/1916 Sperry 124-27 2,800,890 7/1957 Starek 124-52 X2,830,570 4/1958 Horowitz et a1. l2427 X 2,935,980 4/1960 Garver 12430 X3,191,588 6/1965 Thew 124-42 X GEORGE J. MARLO, Primary Examiner W. R.BROWNE, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 12437

